San Sebastian

Well, it’s been a little while! I had a post written up about the Tour of Austria, but never got around to posting it and now I feel like the moment has come and gone. Anyway, here’s a very brief recap: I crashed in crosswinds and had a chainring cut into my shinbone, requiring 3 stitches and an early departure back to Girona. I had a few days off the bike to help it heal properly, and at the same time, my girlfriend was visiting from Australia during her uni holidays. (partly why I have been so quiet on social media lately!) It was great having her around, and we made a trip to a little beach town called Llafranc for a few days which I claimed a ‘working holiday’ since I was out training every day whilst we were there. Arriving back from the beach and we spent some time moving apartments and making a visit to the medical clinic to get the sutures taken out, which frustratingly required a couple of trips. (Only half of the sutures were removed on the first visit). It was a busy and enjoyable period, but it was unfortunate that I was unable to train properly for a while due to the shin, and I think that really showed when racing San Sebastian.

San Sebastian is a classic one-day race held in Northern Spain, over a lumpy 230km. I managed to get about 180km of the way through before being dropped and having an early departure back to the bus. There were many DNF’s and possibly quite a few tired bodies from the TDF, but also quite a few bodies who were on super form coming off a strong TDF campaign. That was evident which our riders, with Rigoberto still riding strong after his 2nd place at the TdF, and Alberto Bettiol was absolutely flying (who would go on to finish 6th place for the day). My form wasn’t where it needed to be, but I think hopefully this was a good ‘wake-up’ for the body before getting stuck into an altitude training block in Andorra in the coming weeks. (to be confirmed).

Sometimes you have no idea where the form is at, and other times it’s rather easy to tell while you’re out training. I don’t need a power-meter or heart-rate data to tell me how the body is feeling. I don’t feel too tired or fatigued at the moment, and the sensations while training are good, I just feel like a need a little bit of time to rebuild the fitness. With a constant flow of races, it can sometimes be hard to get in a specific block of training or a period of proper rest and recovery. I am starting to really appreciate the time in the off-season when we can properly rest and spend time working on the fundamentals.

Still, it’s a while until I head home and there are a few more races on the horizon before getting on the big bird back to Australia. I think my parents are planning a trip to come and visit in town and watch some racing which would be fantastic, as they’ve never been to Girona before, and I’d like to show them the place where I am living. My brother and his wife were also planning to come over for a holiday until plans changed, and now they’re expecting a new arrival to the family later this year! (Extremely exciting! Another thing to look forward to coming home!).

Thanks, Peter! I’m definitely accumulating a fair few experiences from this season! In 2016 I won my first professional stage race in Austria, and this year I went home after the 2nd road stage with a nice scar to take with me… And now I know the San Sebastian might be a nice place for a holiday 🙂

Thanks Mike, yep, agreed on the new sponsorship! It was coincidentally in line with a very successful Tour de France for the team! Haha you’re not the first to mention the ‘can’-oath joke, let’s see what this partnership brings for both Oath and Cannondale-Drapac in the future…

I hope you got to enjoy some of the brilliant scenery around San Sebastian from the bus on the way to the finish. Bit of a killer with such steep climb do close to the finish. Really surprising that there was no broadcast of this race in Australia. We were really hanging out for this but had to settle for the last 10km on Steep Hill

Best of luck with the recovery, a chain ring cut in the shin sounds painful. Make sure your next few training blocks put you in peak condition for the Teardrop crits

Form really is a magical creature, even with all the data available to the modern cyclist. I know in my case a large component of form is mental, that willingness to push a bit harder on a consistent basis.

As a professional, working to a program and no doubt with a different approach to the recreational cyclist, how much of form is mental? How controllable is form?